I read on a post where someone talked about rotating egg placement inside even a forced air incubator because of temperature differences. I lost the thread and can't remember who it was now. I'm talking about relocation of position within the incubator, not the act of turning the eggs. Does anyone else recommend this? If you practice this I have another question! If you are incubating shipped eggs do you rotate their position within the incubator during the first 48 hours or do you typically wait and start rotating them on Day 3? Thanks in advance for your experience & wisdom.

I do this! Every time I candle I take all eggs out of the rack and put into another. When I put them back into the incubator I space them out from their original spot. Inner eggs go outside and vise versa.

Shipped eggs. I leave them in 1 position, no turning for 3 days straight. On the 4th day I candle, adjust egg angle according to the dip in AC. Then normal turn. I move their location like normal eggs.

I read on a post where someone talked about rotating egg placement inside even a forced air incubator because of temperature differences. I lost the thread and can't remember who it was now. I'm talking about relocation of position within the incubator, not the act of turning the eggs. Does anyone else recommend this? If you practice this I have another question! If you are incubating shipped eggs do you rotate their position within the incubator during the first 48 hours or do you typically wait and start rotating them on Day 3? Thanks in advance for your experience & wisdom.

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I only just started using a factory made incu. Its forced air. I ran it several days before using it and had trusted thermometers at different places inside. The left half of the incubator was a full degree warmer than the right side. If i had the incubator full to capacity i would rotate all eggs probably on candling days. So far i havent had to do that though.

So you all only rotate their position when you candle? What days are you candling on? I want to say the post I read said they were doing it everyday.

AlleysChicks said:

I do this! Every time I candle I take all eggs out of the rack and put into another. When I put them back into the incubator I space them out from their original spot. Inner eggs go outside and vise versa.

Shipped eggs. I leave them in 1 position, no turning for 3 days straight. On the 4th day I candle, adjust egg angle according to the dip in AC. Then normal turn. I move their location like normal eggs.

So you all only rotate their position when you candle? What days are you candling on? I want to say the post I read said they were doing it everyday.

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hmm, well I suppose it would really depend on what incu I was working with. but with mine and a 1 degree variance that is lower than perfect temp I would only feel the need to rotate them, to let the ones behind catch up so they were hatching at about the same time. opening to move them all around everyday, in the case of the incu that needs it's full top removed to do that, I would feel would change the over all temperature far too often to really make a difference. I candle day 7, 14 and 18.

Last time with shipped eggs I candled them in the turner so I would disturb them as little as possible, lol. I thought it sounded a bit excessive to do it everyday. It does seem like a good idea though, just not that often. I'm using a Hovabator Genisis 1588.

If I couldn't trust an incubator to keep them all within an appropriate range, I wouldn't use it. I won't touch or candle eggs until day 17-18 when I do lockdown. The embryos are fragile, and susceptible to bacterial infection. If it's not a full batch, I will try to arrange them in the turner so that none are on the outside and none are in the center, but that's as far as I go with worrying about it.

I was super paranoid when I first started incubating. But if you think about it, a broody hen doesn’t suit up in sterile gear to set on her eggs. And she moves her eggs around and turns them while doing it.